Participate A few weeks ago, Fr. Thomas made these points in a homily: we are called to be more than just pious observers. Everyone has gifts to share. Never underestimate our power to help—at St. Matt’s and beyond. For example: • At our September Parish Council meeting, we learned about a local program to help families. It’s called “Faithful Hospitality”, and its goal is to empower the newly arrived with stable, short-term shelter and connections to employment and other resources. (If that reminds you of Casa Guadalupana, one of our parish ministry partners, I’m with you. Both programs … [Read more...] about Parish Administrator’s Note – October 6, 2024

APBA, Stewardship I recently attended a meeting of my professional organization, the Association of Parish Business Administrators (APBA). I find it useful to learn from colleagues throughout our Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. At the same time, I can share things I’ve learned. One of the meeting’s highlights was a talk by Jeanne Schaaf* of the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota (CCF). Jeanne spoke on Stewardship as a Way of Life. Jeanne also shared this thoughtful piece, from our Archdiocesan Stewardship website: “Who is a Christian disciple? One who responds to Christ’s … [Read more...] about Parish Administrator’s Note – September 29, 2024

Church Roof Update We have good news and bad news about the roof leaks in our church building. The good news is that some of the problems have been addressed. In July of 2024, the roofing company replaced metal flashing around the perimeter of the top roof, at no cost to us. That work was not done in 2019 when the roof was replaced. After the roofing company representative told me what they accomplished in July, I understood better why we used to have leaks in certain areas whenever we had heavy rains. Recall that we often had a bucket near Door 1. That spot hasn’t had leaks since … [Read more...] about Parish Administrator’s Note – September 22, 2024

Who Ya Gonna Call? Over the past several weeks, staff and volunteers have noticed more persons on our campus who seem like they might be unhoused. We’ve talked to several of these folks, leading us to ask how we can help them. Who might we call? To improve our ability to respond—especially regarding the unhoused—we recently reached out to the city. That led to a meeting that Angela and I had with Chris Michels. She’s the administrator for a St. Paul program called “The Familiar Faces Initiative”. She’s working on two ways that could help us help people needing shelter and other … [Read more...] about Parish Administrator’s Note – September 15, 2024

We Are Only Saved Together I was inspired by a recent book reading at the Church of the Assumption in downtown St. Paul. Author Colin Miller read excerpts from his new book, We Are Only Saved Together: Living the Revolutionary Vision of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement. A little background: Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin founded the Catholic Worker movement in the 1930s. Basics of the movement include houses of hospitality, growing food together, and newspapers. (St. Matt’s regularly receives a copy of The Catholic Worker, the newspaper Day and Maurin founded. We currently place … [Read more...] about Parish Administrator’s Note – September 8, 2024

Vatican II, aka the Second Vatican Council Last week, I wrote about what my daughter Bea noticed about our liturgies, especially the homilies of Fr. Steve and Fr. Thomas. She’s appreciated them very much, as this summer she was playing piano at another parish in our Archdiocese. There, she noticed that the homilies were long, yet light on substance. Often, they evoked a pre-Vatican II mentality that Catholics are better than other faiths. Speaking of Vatican II, I was recently asked about it. Why do we bring it up so much? Fr. Steve preached on it and writes columns about it. Fr. Thomas … [Read more...] about Parish Administrator’s Note – September 1, 2024

Notes From Another Parish “Dad, his homilies are church repellent!” So said my daughter Bea several weeks ago, with regard to another Catholic parish in the Archdiocese. She played piano there for several Masses this summer, in addition to playing at St. Matt’s while she was in town. “Tell me more,” I said. And so she did. She said that this other priest’s homilies were usually about 20 minutes long, but with little content. As I understood her comments, this other homilist usually said that “God is good, and we should listen to God.” So far, so good. Bea went on, however, to note that he … [Read more...] about Parish Administrator’s Note – August 25, 2024